Twelve months on from becoming Champions of the Netherlands, AZ Alkmaar were reflecting on a solid if unspectacular campaign. Manager Robinho Lazaró had done an impressive job of promoting homegrown youth while keeping his promising AZ side competitive.
As a result, they again had a huge interest in their talented youngsters, led by the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid chasing star academy product Raily Wau. The 18-year-old, largely considered the best youngster in the world, got unhappy when Lazaró rejected a pathetic £60m bid from Spurs and the manager was forced to agree to sell him if they received a £108m bid. However, when their interest faded he was suddenly happy at the club again, so Lazaró seized the opportunity to tie him down to a new 5-year deal with a 3-year extension clause on a club-high £52k a week, keeping him at AZ until 2036.
None of their star youngsters departed the club in the summer but, in January, Real Madrid came in for right back Denso Kasius and Lazaró negotiated the bid up to £40m. So his departure saw AZ become fully homegrown with every player at the club produced through its youth academy for the first time.
Lazaró promoted two more prospects into the first team, versatile attacker Tómas Johanneson and full back Zep Kalk. He also tweaked his 4-2-4 approach with a more attacking methodology, switching the left back from an inverted full back to a wing back to allow Maxim Dekker to play in his more natural centre back position and Lewis Schouten to push back up into midfield. There was also progress off the field as the AZ board announced plans to expand AFAS Stadion by 9,750 seats to a 29,250 capacity. That would take the entire season to complete, so AZ rented out Ajax’s Johan Cruijff ArenA for £900k.
Flying Start Domestic and Continental Starts
AZ’s slight dropoff last season coincided with a decline in Dutch football, which saw them enter the Europa League at the second qualifying round. But they breezed past Tobyl 10-1, led by Ruben van Bommel’s club record-equalling five-goal haul in the second leg, Rosenborg 5-2 and LASK 4-2 to reach the group stage. They got a few tricky fixtures, including opening up with a surprise 2-0 win at home to Man UFC before beating Braga and Sporting 1-0, Derry City and Viktoria Plzen 4-1 and Fenerbahce 5-3 to qualify with two games spare. And fully rotated teams even beat Zürich and Atalanta.
They took that form into the knockouts as van Brederode braces earned 3-0 and 2-0 wins over Girona before easing past Sporting 3-1. Their reward was a semi against Man UFC, who nicked a 2-2 at AZ before edging a tight game 3-1 at Old Trafford. UFC went on to lose 6-1 to Spurs in the Final. Wau won Europa League player of the season with 9 goals and a 7.69 average rating, which was higher than player of the season Victor Boniface’s 7.67, and Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro made the overall squad.
AZ began Eredivisie in inspired form, scoring four in the first 16 minutes and six in the first half in their season opener at home to Excelsior. They went on to win 9-0 (which didn’t quite match the club record 11-1 v Differgange in July 1977) with eight different scorers and Johanneson bagging his first for the club off the bench. They backed that up by putting five past Helmond led by winger Manuel Piqué’s brace, which sparked a perfect start as they won eight on the bounce before hosting Ajax in their own stadium. And AZ earned an impressive 2-1 victory that should have been far more comfortable.
That gave them the confidence to win their first 15 league games before facing Feyenoord and PSV. First up, they entertained Feyenoord and looked to be drifting to a 0-0 until an inspired substitution saw Jasper Hartog tee up Ernest Poku to nick all three points. And they kept the miraculous run going as van Brederode and Hartog earned a 2-1 win at PSV to give them a perfect record through half a season.
A win at home to NEC equalled Ajax’s all-time Eredivisie record of 19 successive wins set in 1972, but they blew it by drawing 1-1 at Excelsior and their unbeaten record ended with a 3-1 defeat at Ajax. But they claimed a second Eredivisie title in three years at a canter with four games remaining. They finished with 88 points, 11 clear of Ajax and 15 ahead of Feyenoord, after 28 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats. They scored 90 goals and conceded just 24.
Star striker Myron van Brederode had an injury-hit season but still finished third-top scorer in Eredivisie with 16 in 22, well behind Santiago Giménez’s 28 in 29, and van Bommel was joint-fifth with 13. Wau had the third-best average rating of 7.45 and second-most assists with 12.
AZ Academy Products Update
van Bommel overhauled van Brederode as AZ’s top scorer with 23 in 40 followed by van Brederode (22 in 34), Wau (19), Jayden Addai (16), Piqué (14) and Poku (11). Wau led the way with 16 assists followed by left back Saviola Simons who had a breakthrough season with 13, Addai and van Bommel (11) and Piqué, Lewis Schouten and van Brederode (7). But Wau was very much the star man with a superb 7.54 average rating across 42 matches.
AZ’s academy stars reached new levels yet again this season, playing a combined 496 league games and 306 cup games – 48 and 108 more than last season. They contributed 88 league goals and 70 assists – 4 and 14 more than last season – plus 54 goals and 41 assists in cup matches. Here’s how academy players performed in the first team:
Jong AZ performed well, finishing 4th in Keuken Kampioen Divisie just 9 points back from winners Heracles. That was led by Johanneson finishing 2nd-top scorer with 14 goals, plus 10 goals by winger Erwin Drent and striker Jeffrey Potjes and 10 assists from Kalk. The Under 18s were also much improved, recovering from relegation to win their league led by 29 goals from Gery ten Teije, 17 goals by his strike partner Fernando Willems, 10 goals and 13 assists by 16-year-old Rence Stronks and 8 goals and 12 assists from winger Robin Storm.
Away from the football, AZ had a disappointing youth intake with no elite talents, in which the highlight was three players with 4-star potential and three with 3.5-star potential. However, Wau won a third successive NxGn award, with Piqué in 2nd, in addition to claiming European Golden Boy.
The first step in Lazaró’s mission was arguably complete, as he won the Dutch title with a team fully comprised of players produced by the AZ Alkmaar academy. But, given Kasius played half the season, they probably needed another title to confirm that. While success in Europe still seems a long way off for this group of players.
Could AZ build on this success and defend their title next season? Join us next Monday to find out!
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